The Martial Unity

(‘All your attacks begin from a tucked position,’) Rui mused. (‘Furthermore, because you have put a heavier weight on offense, none of your attacks begin within a certain range of me, allowing me to easily eliminate the possibility of an attack when they are within that range.’)

Rui had already picked up fourteen such patterns in his movements, both active and passive, and they were already good enough to form the basis of a simple predictive model that was effective enough.

And the difference was evident.

“How is he evading all those strikes so well?”

“Even though he was being pushed back at the start of the fight…”

“Did he hold back?”

Both initiates and guardians alike instantly noticed the difference in the quality of Rui’s movements. He timed his evasions just right, he began moving before the man’s motions began, but just a beat prior when it was too late to change his movements!

This was Forestep in its core concept being employed without the speed boost of the Godspeed technique!

However, Rui did not restrict himself to merely evading the man’s attacks.

POW POW POW!

Well-timed and placed strikes found themselves cleanly slamming into Squire Seronin one by one.

The same attacks that he defended against earlier were no longer something he was able to defend against anymore.

Squire Seronin gritted his teeth as he abandoned defense, throwing himself, maximizing his offense to the absolute limit abruptly. If he could just catch Rui off-guard, he might be able to regain the advantage!

At the very least, he was sure that he would be able to break the flow of the battle, and ‘reset’ the initiative.

In the best-case scenario, he would even be able to regain the initiative.

It was his one hope.

And soon, it became his despair.

BOOM!!

“URGH!” He grimaced as he felt unyielding pain reverberating across his entire body from his gut.

Rui had disappeared before his eyes, leaving behind an empty feint. His own tunnel vision had given Rui the perfect opportunity to feint away and launch a powerful blow into the man’s gut with his most powerful attack. The combined might of Flowing Canon, Outer Convergence, Adamant Reforging, and Gale Force Breathing struck his upper abdomen.

CRACK!

He felt a sharp piercing pain as the sheer power of the strike broke his ribs.

It was over.

Yet, it didn’t end

BAM!!

Rui kicked him in the jaw. A wave of dizziness flashed across his consciousness.

POW POW POW!

Rui pummeled him, blasting him with attack after attack, breaking down the paltry defenses that the man put up reflexively.

“AAAARRGH!” He threw himself at Rui, an expression of rage and pain crumpling his face. “I’m not done ye-!”

BOOM!

Rui launched him hurtling across the entire arena with Thundering Catapult, rushing in immediately to follow up.

Squire Seronin staggered to his feet.

Something had broken.

But it wasn’t just his body.

Every last bit of resistance had crumbled.

Yet, his body healed, preparing him for battle. Yet, Rui was not done with him either.

POW POW POW!

Rui mercilessly beat him to a pulp. Bruises, cuts, fractures, and swelling had long made him unrecognizable from his appearance at the start of the battle.

Yet it wasn’t the physical pain that hurt the most.

Bodies healed, especially Martial bodies. Yet it wasn’t just his body that was breaking down.

His attacks.

His defense.

His very Martial Art.

Rui’s silver eyes should have reflected light, yet he saw endless darkness within them.

An endless void that consumed everything it saw.

“AAAAARRRGH!” The man cried in horror as he turtled up, tugging at his hair. “ARRGRGRGGRRGRRHEGEE!!!”

The pain was too much.

But not of the body, but of the mind.

His body shivered as his eyes rolled up, and he began convulsing, dropping straight to the ground.

“Huh?” Rui stopped, frowning as he stepped back, glancing at the arbiter.

“Due to his opponent being unable to continue the fight, Guardian Falken is the winner!”

The entirety of the colosseum stared in silence at Rui’s shocking performance. While Squire Seronin was far from being strong by the standards of the average guardian, Rui had crushed him with such dominance, that it was hard to believe that he was only of the caliber of the tenth class. The sheer power that he had demonstrated was something only Martial Squires of much higher classes could possibly employ.

Yet, unbeknownst to them, Rui hadn’t even gone all out. He had thought that he would need to use Godspeed to beat the man, yet it quickly became evident that a basic predictive model alone would suffice.

(‘He sure was confident,’) Rui huffed as Squire paramedics administered a powerful healing potion while strapping him securely to a bed. (‘This is what happens when you have a flawed understanding of what your opponent is capable of.’)

Had Rui decided to use the pattern recognition systems, Guardian Seronin probably would have never even dared to challenge him in a fight.

He had to admit that the fight was a lot closer without the predictive model, although Rui was confident that he would have definitely won that fight as well.

Rui shrugged before turning and leaving the colosseum.

“Great fight,” Kane gave him a thumbs up. “Also, did you create a new technique that causes someone to… have a mental breakdown?”

“Obviously not.”

ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm Kane threw Rui a dubious look in response.

“I didn’t,” Rui huffed. “I actually don’t really understand what happened there either. But he just went nuts in the middle of the battle. I might have caused some brain damage which caused a seizure of some sort. But they can easily fix that.”

However, much to everyone’s surprise, that did not happen. Although Squire Seronin recovered mentally, he was almost unrecognizable. His face was gaunt and pale, while his eyes were listless and dead.

He announced the ending of his career as a Martial Artist before leaving the Floating Sect forever. It was said that he even needed someone to carry him down because he lost his ability to sky-walk.